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After yet another disappointing campaign with the Milwaukee Bucks, star forward Giannis Antetokounmpo is seemingly at the crossroads of his career. The continuous eliminations at the initial phase of the postseasons have seemingly left Antetokounmpo dejected, questioning his future at the franchise. The speculations of Giannis potentially leaving the Bucks picked up weight after Damian Lillard sustained a disastrous Achilles injury that may keep him out for the entirety of the next season. While Giannis has continued to dominate throughout the season, the Bucks were still far from contending for the championship, and a similar case may prevail in the next season too, in the wake of Lillard's injury. All the adversities accumulated to The Greek-Freak conveying that he is "open-minded" about exploring the possibilities of playing elsewhere next season.
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NBA's New Rule Puts Franchises Under the Financial Pump
The NBA's new collective bargaining agreement has already made it immensely challenging to keep multiple highly paid stars together for more than one contract. Consequently, teams like the Boston Celtics could be forced to offload at least two members of their 2023 championship core, while teams like the Minnesota Timberwolves already had to make changes.
Brian Windhorst explained why having multiple stars on mega deals simply isn’t sustainable in the modern NBA.
“It’s very hard, not impossible, but it’s very hard to have three gigantic salaries, you know, $50 million-plus salaries. And if you do, all three of those guys better be awesome, because you can’t fill out the rest of your roster,” Windhorst said on The Dan Patrick Show.
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San Antonio Spurs Have the Wherewithal to Sign Giannis
With these new stringent financial obstacles, it will become a herculean task to afford Giannis' whopping $54 million wages next season. The 9-time All-Star can become a primary target for the many franchises but when it comes to who can actually have the wherewithal to acquire him, then only the San Antonio Spurs' name comes to the fore.
“So, San Antonio has something that is extremely attractive,” Windhorst continued. “They have a star player in Victor Wembanyama, who is on his rookie contract for several more years… So they have a star player on a rookie-scale contract. They have young pieces in-house that would interest anybody, including Stephon Castle, who just won Rookie of the Year.”
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